Simone Muench suggested the following prompt: “write a cento that is a self-portrait, or anthology of your life, utilizing lines and fragments from your own work,” an intriguing and somewhat daunting task.
You’re lost if you look, if you listen, if you follow
Austere, without edges or colour,
small-smiling, she looks down,
watches, waits for a sign, any sign,
listens for the story
as cardinals sing a requiem among apple blossoms.
Otherwise, she feels invisible.
Her life lies on her lips like a mystery,
like the ice that coats trees when you thought it would rain.
And I begin to understand
the legacy of those cruel shards,
to be herself
what will shatter with her
in a way both welcome and not.
Cento Gloss: Each line in this ‘self-portrait’ poem is taken unaltered from the following poems written over the past decade+: “Panorama,” “Woman of ice, woman of glass,” The April Dead II,” “Fairy Tales,” “Nero fiddled while Rome burned,” “Huis clos,” “The days of billy boy bad,” (a line from which furnished the title for the cento,) “Debut,” “Elegy for a Thrush,” “Post Partum,” “Vanishing point, “ “Where does it hurt”, “No regrets.”
April 7, Impromptu poem (Found Poetry Review)
Simone Muench suggested the following prompt: “write a cento that is a self-portrait, or anthology of your life, utilizing lines and fragments from your own work,” an intriguing and somewhat daunting task.
You’re lost if you look, if you listen, if you follow
Austere, without edges or colour,
small-smiling, she looks down,
watches, waits for a sign, any sign,
listens for the story
as cardinals sing a requiem among apple blossoms.
Otherwise, she feels invisible.
Her life lies on her lips like a mystery,
like the ice that coats trees when you thought it would rain.
And I begin to understand
the legacy of those cruel shards,
to be herself
what will shatter with her
in a way both welcome and not.
Cento Gloss: Each line in this ‘self-portrait’ poem is taken unaltered from the following poems written over the past decade+: “Panorama,” “Woman of ice, woman of glass,” The April Dead II,” “Fairy Tales,” “Nero fiddled while Rome burned,” “Huis clos,” “The days of billy boy bad,” (a line from which furnished the title for the cento,) “Debut,” “Elegy for a Thrush,” “Post Partum,” “Vanishing point, “ “Where does it hurt”, “No regrets.”
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